The Royal Institution’s festive feasts for the mind

From Michael Faraday to David Attenborough plus adorable lemur – many eminent figures have delivered Christmas science lectures at the UK’s Royal Institution. The organisation has put on 180 series of Christmas lectures since 1825, delivered by a total of 105 lecturers including eight Nobel prizewinners. Here, Frank James, the Royal Institution’s science historian, describes his favourite from each decade.

Michael Faraday – 1855

This image, which formed the basis for the £20 note during the 1990s, depicts Faraday delivering a Christmas lecture in front of Albert, the prince consort of Queen Victoria. Faraday points to blocks of wood representing the densities of different materials. These blocks are now on display under this picture, which hangs outside the Royal Institution’s lecture theatre.

The lectures began in 1825, shortly after the RI was founded. The first series was delivered by the Royal Institution’s professor of mechanics, John Millington. Michael Faraday, who among other things discovered electromagnetic induction, gave the third series and went on to deliver a further 18 series, including this one entitled "The distinctive properties of the common metals".

(Image: Royal Institution)

Robert Stawell Ball – 1900

Ball was an Irish-born astronomer. He became the astronomer royal for Ireland and later professor of astronomy at the University of Cambridge. He was a very popular lecturer, delivering five series of Christmas lectures from which he earned a significant income. In this image he is demonstrating the behaviour of flame.

(Image: Royal Institution)

Edward Neville da Costa Andrade – 1927

This photo shows Andrade demonstrating how an electromagnetic engine worked. At the time of this lecture he was about to become professor of physics at University College, London, and in 1950 would be appointed head of the Royal Institution.

A few days after Andrade delivered his lecture the electrical substation in the basement of the RI blew up, sending flames to the second floor where the lectures were held. The damage caused led to the refurbishment of the building in the 1930s.

(Image: Royal Institution)

Geoffrey Ingram Taylor – 1936

Taylor was a professor of physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK, with an interest in turbulence and had been on the expedition to study the distribution of icebergs following the sinking of the Titanic. Hence he chose to talk about ships for his Christmas lectures. Here he shows children a diving suit in the room just outside the lecture theatre.

The Christmas lectures always involved a large number of experimental demonstrations and illustrations with full audience participation, as this photo shows.

(Image: Royal Institution)

Percy Dunsheath – 1949

Dunsheath was a distinguished electrical engineer. His Christmas lecture series, delivered to a very smartly dressed audience, was on electric currents; here he is showing an early electrostatic generator and one of the batteries which chemist Humphry Davy had used to isolate sodium and potassium in the early 19th century.

(Image: Royal Institution)

Frank Whittle – 1954

Whittle, best known for inventing the jet engine during the second world war, chose "The Story of Petroleum" as the topic for his Christmas lectures. Here his glamorous assistant (who is wearing a dress made from a petroleum-based fabric) is, for unknown reasons, placing Whittle’s head in a bowl – presumably also made of a synthetic material.

(Image: Royal Institution)

George Porter – 1969

Porter had been appointed director of the Royal Institution in 1966 and had won the Nobel prize for his photochemical research the following year. This image, showing Porter carrying out a straightforward chemical experiment, is from his first of two series of Christmas lectures. Both were televised, though the recording of the first series has not survived.

(Image: Royal Institution)

David Attenborough – 1973

Attenborough had made a number of natural history documentaries before being appointed the first controller of the UK's BBC2 television channel in 1965. He was thus responsible for starting the televising of the Christmas lectures. He delivered his own series on animal language and is seen here with a ring-tailed lemur from Madagascar, where he had filmed in 1960.

(Image: Royal Institution)

Charles Taylor – 1989

Taylor was professor of physics at University College Cardiff, UK, where he researched crystallography. He also worked on acoustics and music, and it was on these topics that he delivered two series of Christmas lectures. The displays in the Royal Institution include his musical saw and straw pan pipes.

(Image: Royal Institution)

Susan Greenfield – 1994

Greenfield was the first woman ever to deliver the Christmas lectures; four years later, she was appointed director of the Royal Institution. Her research concentrates on neuroscience, which was the topic covered by her lectures. Here she is demonstrating the evolution of the cranial capacity of primates up to Homo sapiens.

(Image: Royal Institution)

Sue Hartley – 2009

Hartley is an ecologist at the University of Sussex, UK, specialising in the interactions of plants and animals. She is only the fourth woman to ever give the Christmas lectures.

This year's lectures will focus on the 300-million-year evolutionary war between plants and animals. Hartley will look to the future to see how this interaction might change.

In this image Sue is using a human caterpillar to demonstrate how difficult it is to overcome a leaf’s defences.